It’s a crazy but true fact: Of the 23 Oscar categories, there is only one which has never included a nominee from an international film. That category is Best Supporting Actor.
But the strange distinction might not last for much longer. It’s dangerous to believe in sure-things in Oscarland, but the legendary Swedish actor Stellan Skarsgård is strongly predicted by experts to be nominated in the supporting category for his great, funny, grumpy performance in “Sentimental Value.” He’s received a Golden Globe nomination (in a very friendly lineup for International films), a Critics Choice nomination and won the Los Angeles Film Critics prize for supporting performance.
The film is a Norwegian-French-German-Swedish-Danish production and the dialogue is predominantly in Norwegian and Swedish. It is also in the running for Best International Feature Film as the Norwegian submission.
By saying international film, we are referring to a movie financed and produced outside of the United States that is entirely or predominantly in a language other than English. For example, last year’s winner in the International Feature category, Brazil’s “I’m Still Here.” Or “Emilia Pérez,” the Spanish-language French film, which in March won Zoe Saldaña an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress.
Best Supporting Actor has never had a moment like Saldaña’s. Not even close. The streak or never nominating an international performance stretches all the way back to 1936, when the Academy first inaugurated supporting categories in an effort to recognize character actors who were unlikely to be rewarded. (Winners were given plaques back then, not statuettes.)
Skarsgård’s performance, as the absent father of two adult daughters, is performed in English for a portion of the actor’s screen time. He plays a reclusive filmmaker who forms a creative bond with an English-speaking American movie star (Elle Fanning).
Of course, there’s irony in that. Performances with much less English dialogue than Skarsgård’s – like Yura Borisov’s mostly Russian-language role in last year’s American movie “Anora” – have received Oscar nominations.
And non-English language roles have won in the category too. Robert De Niro spoke Italian in “The Godfather: Part II,” Benicio del Toro spoke Spanish in “Traffic,” and Ke Huy Quan spoke Mandarin in “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” but those three, like “Anora,” were also American movies, financed and produced in the United States.
The other acting categories have made plenty of room for nominees from international films. In addition to Saldaña’s recent win, the last decade alone has featured nominees such as Isabelle Huppert (“Elle”), Antonio Banderas (“Pain and Glory”), Penélope Cruz (“Parallel Mothers”), Fernanda Torres (“I’m Still Here”), Karla Sofía Gascón (“Emilia Pérez”), Yalitza Aparicio and Marina de Tavira (“Roma”) in their respective Best Actress, Actor and Supporting Actress categories.
And as mentioned previously, every single other Oscar category has broken the threshold and nominated international, non-English productions. In 2024, international films were the winners for the first time in Best Sound (the U.K.’s German-language “The Zone of Interest”) and Best Visual Effects (Japan’s “Godzilla Minus One”).
There have been near-missed for international film performances in Best Supporting Actor. In recent years, possible contenders included Steven Yeun (South Korea’s “Burning”), Anders Danielsen Lie (Norway’s “The Worst Person in the World”) and Song Kang-ho (South Korea’s “Parasite”), who all won critics’ awards in the category. Of those, Song probably came the closest to an Oscar nom, given his prominence in the eventual Best Picture winner.
So why has Best Supporting Actor kept international performances locked out? One reason might have to do with the star wattage of men in movies. An actor the caliber of Banderas, for example, is more likely to topline a film in his native Spain, especially one directed by his longtime collaborator Pedro Almodovar, than appear in a supporting role.
The same would be said for lead actor Oscar nominees Gérard Depardieu (France’s “Cyrano de Bergerac”), Marcello Mastroianni (nominated three times, all for Italian films) or this year’s potential nominees Wagner Moura (Brazil’s “The Secret Agent”) and Lee Byung-hun (South Korea’s “No Other Choice”).
Skarsgård, for sure, has played lead roles, like in the 1997’s Norwegian thriller “Insomnia.” But he’s more established as an actor who fits within ensemble casts, with memorable performances in “Dogville,” “Good Will Hunting,” “Thor,” “Melancholia,” “Mamma Mia!,” “The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo” and “Dune.” On TV, he’s been superb in “Chernobyl,” “Entourage” and in a main role across two seasons of “Andor.”
And his role as the roguish patriarch in “Sentimental Value” is emblematic of his distinguished career of secondary roles: sneaky, clever, potent character parts that elevate the quality of the overall work, even with only a few scenes. So if things go according to predictions, 75-year-old Skarsgård is the ideal, reliable journeyman to break this nine-decade Best Supporting Actor ceiling.
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